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NRC shoots down Texas nuclear plant expansion

Plans to build two new reactors at the South Texas Project nuclear facility outside Bay City hit a road block Tuesday.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled that a partnership between NRG and Toshiba Corp. through the holding company Nuclear Innovation North America violated a U.S law prohibiting foreign control of nuclear power plants.

“At this point NINA from our perspective is foreign owned, controlled or dominated,” said NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. “Until such time as NINA can come up with a different corporate ownership structure we would not be able to approve their license.”

The holding company plans to appeal the ruling to the NRC’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board, arguing that NRG controls 90 percent of the holding company, a NRG spokesman said. No date for a hearing has been set.

Regulators took issue with NRG’s decision two years ago to pull back its investment in expanding the existing two reactors at the South Texas Project facility. At the time electricity prices were falling rapidly with the tapping of vast domestic reserves of natural gas.

Since then the licensing process, which takes years to complete, has been wholly funded by Toshiba in the form of a loan, an NRG spokesman said.

But Houston-based NRG has not completely dismissed the project, at least in concept.

“It is unknown where natural gas prices will be in the future,” said spokesman David Knox. “At some point it’s very possible new nuclear will be economically viable.”

NRG and Toshiba remains hopeful they can convince the atomic safety board to overrule NRC staff. But they will likely face an uphill climb.

“In this case it would seem unlikely the board would come to any different conclusion than what the staff has stated,” Burnell said. “They would have to prove day to day control of the company lies within the United States.”

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